Steve's Biz Blog

Archive for December, 2008

January is coming, and for many businesses, the traffic cycle changes.  Retailers hate January because it’s so much slower than the previous two months.  Some other businesses are back to normal because everyone is back to work, and serious (at least for a few days) about their New Year’s resolutions.   Still others have a great January planned because their business cycle makes January a month of demand.

Whatever your business, consider having a “Sunset Sale” at the end of January.  Why?  It helps people to think of you.  Promote your sale during the entire month of January.  Talk about it.  Write about it.  Tell your local newspaper about.  Send a press release to someone at the Wall Street Journal.  Have a pre-sale for your best customers.  Cross-promote with other businesses to generate extra traffic and to share expenses for advertising, supplies, prizes, etc.  Run your sale all night, or 24/7 for the last week of January.  Invite people into your establishment for tea and cookies, coffee and donuts, or hot dogs and sauerkraut.  If you’re on the internet, offer a free e-guide, or 30 minutes free consulting, or a list of unique links.  Build your e-mail and snail-mail lists.

The key thing is, do something different, and do it at a time when no one else is doing something.  That way you’ll stand out.  Make people feel a little bit better about themselves because they see you hustling and making things happen.  Don’t wait to have a Valentine’s or President’s Day Sale because everyone is promoting then.  If you do your “Sunset Sale” well, you’ll have so much business in February, you won’t need to compete for share of mind.

Who knows what will happen?  Any action during a slow business period is noticeable to your employees, your customers, your prospects, the press, etc.  Just do it.  It works.  Try it, you’ll see.

P.S.  You don’t need to name it a “Sunset Sale.”  Make something up that’s catchy, that will make people notice.  It could just as easily be a “Sunrise Sale” or whatever you want.  Be creative, be outrageous, maybe even a little crazy.

Sometimes we need to “Walk Softly” as we use the telephone.  We have all been victims of Telemarketers who call at inconvenient times.  You know the type – can’t pronounce your name, obviously reading from a script, mispronouncing words, talking forever, won’t take accept “NO” for an answer…  The phone call from hell.

Many of us shy away from using the telephone in business just because we don’t want to be associated with telemarketing.  There is a better way, however.

How many clients do you have in your computer who haven’t spoken with you for three or more months?  Have you ever considered calling them just to see how they are doing?  You could ask them how that widget machine is working, you know, the one they bought from you last year?  Or you could wish them a Happy Birthday, or ask about her son’s graduation, or mention the article you saw about the in the paper…  There are dozens of reasons you could call, just to show you care.  You don’t need to talk about business.  Just connect with them, find out how they are doing, perhaps discover a few things about them that you didn’t know.

If you think about it, how many times have people who have sold you things in the past bothered to call “just because”?  Would it make you feel better if you heard from some of your vendors occasionally?

Take a soft walk around your client base from time to time…  Don’t talk about business.  Ask about something else.  Engage them in conversation, be interested in THEM and the things that are important to THEM.  Then send them a Thank You card… “Thanks for the conversation…  It was great catching up with you…  Hope your daughter’s wedding goes well.”  Make a goal to just talk with one person in your database every day, and send them a card to thank them for the call.  Let them know that you are glad to have them as an acquaintance and client.  They’ll love you for it…